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Passing this along as a public service (h/t to the Atlantic):
Occupy Sandy isn’t getting married. But it would like a gift all the same.
The volunteer group — an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, focused on helping victims of the storm — is using an especially clever hack of an existing system: Amazon’s gift registry service. Those displaced by the storm, the group realized, need blankets. They need flashlights. They need hygiene products. They need a bunch of things that are orderable — with that famous one-click efficiency — through Amazon. Now, anyone who uses Amazon can buy them those things, and have them shipped to the area hardest hit by the storm. Victims need stuff; people want to give them stuff; Occupy Sandy, via Amazon, is bringing them together.
When you visit the registry, you see this message:
Description: Help donate to the victims of Hurricane Sandy by shipping items to the Occupy Sandy relief outpost at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Clinton Hill (520 Clinton Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238). Our team: John Heggestuen, Alex Nordenson, and Katherine Dolan. We are Brooklyn residents and are in touch with the Occupy Sandy team who will receive the shipped items and organize daily deliveries to priority response areas. We are the updating the registry as we get updates on what is needed most in affected areas. PLEASE pay for the most expedited shipping – these items are needed ASAP! PLEASE NOTE the registry does not update automatically. Your purchases may not be reflected for 24-48 hours, but you will receive a purchase confirmation right away. ***UPDATE: To help us track inventory instantaneously send an email to sandyregistryinventory@gmail.com letting us know what you donated*** Please follow us on Twitter for further updates: @SandyRegistry ***@Sandyregistry is back up!!! Email sandyregistryinfo@gmail.com with questions/feedback on the registry and email sandyregistrypr@gmail.com for additional info about our team*** ***Tweet @amazon for free shipping and tech support for the registry!*** ***We are setting up an inventory management team at the church to ensure donations are accounted for*** ***If you are having any issues with the “Gift Registry” saved address for the church not auto-populating please enter it manually: The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew 520 Clinton Ave Brooklyn, New York 11238 ***
NOTE: This couple has requested no gift wrap.
You know what to do.
UPDATE: Thanks to EmbraceYourInnerCrone, we now know that Occupy Sandy has a New Jersey registry on Amazon as well:
There is a separate Amazon registry for the NJ Occupy effort:
http://www.amazon.com/registry/wedding/2FDVT8QGKJFYR
For up-to-date information about how to help, visit http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/newjersey-locations/ or http://www.jcnjrecovery.org/
Thanks, EYIC!
5 Comments
Thank you for doing a diary/post on it. I am in coastal CT and just got my Internet back but I have been hearing from one of my co-workers in NJ that things are pretty bad. He has no power, no working ATMs, hours long gas lines. He also has 4 dead deer in his back yard he has to figure out how to dispose of…
I’m lucky as my house is 4 blocks from the water and somewhat uphill from the beach so we didn’t get any flooding. There were trees down everywhere though, across the street they had a huge maple tree come down exactly in between 2 houses that are about 50 feet apart. My Mom is 2 miles inland but she had 4 trees come down on her property, all of them missed the house some how.
Yeah. It’s pretty bad all up and down the Jersey Shore and in the Five Boroughs (not to mention Long Island).
One good thing: The next storm looks like it’s going to stay offshore and far enough away so that it shouldn’t be as bad as was feared.
Thanks for this.
For each item on the registry page, on the right side is the number (how many) of each item needed and the number already purchased and sent.
(Fastest shipping is costly, but it’s only money, and if for some reason I can’t pay my credit card at the end of the month, so what? the items went out. OT: Emergency moratorium on Amazon-bashing and even credit-card bashing.)
Hope all your candidates win!
Thanks, AitchD!
It’s sad that outfits like the Red Cross can’t think of doing things like this, but it’s good that humans on the ground have the wit to come up with solutions like this.
Recommended. Wow. Those @OccupySandy folks know how to get things done.